Laurels of Another Kind
by aholeintheground
Summary: Slightly AU one-shot in which Annabeth saves Percy from an incredibly boring lecture and lets something slip about why she loves the color green. R and R if you've got the time, I appreciate every bit of feedback!


**Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters! Also, this idea about the awesome magical mechanical pencil came from my dear friend ImaginIsa (and you should totally check out her Hobbit and Merlin fics, they're awesome).**

I fidgeted in my seat, squirming on the now uncomfortably warm plastic and trying to ignore the breeze coming in through the window, carrying a whiff of the lunch barbecue just getting started and the sounds of other demigods having fun. How dare they _frolic_ while I'm—

"Mr. Jackson? Perseus? Is there anybody in there?"

I jerked suddenly and sat up straight, belatedly becoming aware of Chiron frowning down at me.

"Annabeth, would you kindly tell the class from which plant a winner's garland or circlet would be made?"

"That would be laurel," she said smugly.

I rolled my eyes. Of course the one question I wasn't paying attention to (okay fine, I wasn't paying attention to the rest either) was the one I knew, and _of course_ Annabeth would get it right. And humiliate me at the same time.

Annabeth smirked in my direction. I mouthed _show off_ when Chiron turned around.

He resumed his lecture, stopping every few minutes to pick on another victim.

I picked at the corner of my notebook, pulling scraps out of the wire spirals. Soon, a snowball sized pile rested on the corner of my desk. I snuck a glance at Grover. He was listening intently. I decided I should probably fix that.

"Grover. Grover!" I whispered as loudly as I dared.

He shifted to look at me, periodically glancing guiltily over his shoulder at Chiron's pacing form.

"Want a snack?"

He nodded, smiling. I scooped the pile up and dumped it onto his desk, receiving a glare from Annabeth in the process.

For a moment I didn't know what to do with myself. Take notes? You've got to be kidding me. We'd been in this classroom for like half and hour and I'd already rather fly across the country at Zeus's mercy than listen to this lecture for another second!

A tap on my shoulder interrupted my pity party of one. I looked up to see Annabeth's startlingly deep gray eyes a few inches from my face and did my best to ignore the nervous fluttering in my stomach.

Wordlessly, she handed a plastic cylindrical object to me then quickly sat back down and went back to taking notes as if nothing had happened. I smiled widely before I could help myself, then set the object on my desk, shielding it with my forearm.

I arched an eyebrow. It was a green mechanical pencil. Ugh, another reminder to take notes. As if I would read them later—ha! I lifted it up and examined it, looking between her and the pencil with a mixture of amusement and confusion. She looked back at me and seemed a bit startled to have caught my gaze, but recovered quickly and made a twisting motion with her fingers.

I gave her a questioning glance.

She rolled her eyes. "_Twist it_," she mouthed.

I took two ends of the pencil in opposite hands, then almost gasped aloud when they began to wriggle of their own accord. A tiny window appeared suspended between the two halves that had rolled apart a bit like a scroll. It had three rows of six tiny white blocks with letters and numbers. I stared at them for a moment before using the tip of my old pencil to start sliding them around. I spelled out hydra for the hell of it. I barely held back a yelp when suddenly a long green spark flipped acrobatically out of the pencil's eraser and sprouted multiple heads with glittering purple eyes hissing and roaring soundlessly. After a few seconds it dissolved, leaving nothing behind. I glanced around. Annabeth was still perfectly focused on the lecture. Grover was chewing the last of my paper scraps. The class seemed not to have noticed my unexpected guest. I turned back to the pencil with a wicked grin. What to make now…

Before I knew it, Chiron was saying, "Class dismissed," and I was scrambling to cover a hippocampus doing flips a few inches above my desk.

Everyone else was almost out of the room by the time I had packed, unpacked, and repacked my backpack to retrieve Annabeth's pencil that I had accidentally shoved in with the rest of my stuff. I turned around to find the last few students shuffling out, Annabeth included.

"Hey, Annabeth, wait!"

I scrambled after her, just catching up as we neared a cluster of benches.  
"Wait, Annabeth, here's your pencil, um, thanks, that helped a lot. It's so awesome, like how did you even get this, who made it? Like the first time I used it I was like WHOA what is that, it was amazing!" Stop rambling stop omigosh you're embarrassing yourself she already sort of hates you wait why did she help you out then maybe she felt sorry for you stop it!

"You're welcome," she said, taking the pencil back. I thought I saw a faint blush on her cheeks after our hands touched, but hell, maybe that's just me projecting.

She was unzipping her pencil case to stuff it in when the tip of the pencil caught on the zipper and the whole thing flew into the air. Pencils, pens, erasers, you name it, it was now all over the ground at our feet.

"I'm sorry!" Annabeth said, dropping to her knees to collect them all. I stooped to help her, noticing something a bit odd.

"Annabeth… why is everything green?" I said, laughing. "Seriously, do you have a secret crush on Shrek?"

She laughed, a definite blush appearing this time.

"Not _Shrek_," she muttered quietly, moving a strand of hair behind her ear and looking at her feet.

"Is green your favorite color? Should I only buy you presents in green now? Is there a specific green you like better than other greens?" I teased as we stood up.

"Yes." She said quietly and I stopped walking suddenly.

"And?" I prompted, trying to keep my voice even.

She shifted uncomfortably, then whispered, "I like the ones that remind me of your eyes."

And then she turned away, hiding the blush spreading across her cheeks and was hurrying off to lunch, hunched around the bundle of books and papers in her arms like some blonde Hermione circa Sorcerer's Stone and it was so cute and then I realized I was still over here and all I wanted was to be over there.

And so I started running after her, which was probably going to be a habit I realized, but I didn't care. Annabeth was worth the chase, pun intended.


End file.
